The mobility service provider Free Now has to resort to taxis due to the shortage of rental cars. The background to this is the new service "Ride", which until recently was offered under the name MyTaxi in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.
Here, as well as at Uber in Germany, a licensed rental car with driver booked. The prices for a ride are lower than those of a taxi. In order to keep the waiting time for the passengers at peak times, Free Now also sends taxis in Hamburg and Frankfurt, if no rental car is currently available.
Free Now subsidizes the tours
Since taxi drivers are bound by the tariff obligation, Free Now, which belongs to Daimler and BMW, takes over the difference and thus subsidizes the tours. Customers pay the lower price that taxi drivers get, which is on the taxi clock. Free Now announces that the Ride offer is going to be "very good". In Berlin, within one week, a booking increase of 30 percent was recorded.
Some taxi drivers criticize that Free Now partially distances itself from the taxi business with "Ride". Free Now sees it differently. In addition to the growth in the new offer, the number of classic taxi rides is also increasing. This shows that "there are enough tours for both products" and that Ride "appeals to a completely new target group".
In addition to the "Ride" service, Free Now also offers "Match". Here are taxi tours that go in the same direction, bundled and several people may share a taxi.
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VW service Moia in the price comparison: the cheapest between Elbphilharmonie and party districtVolkswagen is experimenting with a similar model in Hamburg: The Group uses electric vehicles powered by the VW Crafter at its subsidiary Moia. Even competitors like CleverShuttle work on this principle. Uber runs a similar offer in the US under the name Uber Pool and Express Pool.
